RIP Akira Toriyama

 Man, I didn't think the 2020s could get any worse...

Another legend has passed away.

RIP Akira Toriyama. The entire manga industry and the shonen genre wouldn't be what they are without him.

Here's the official statement from Bird Studios on twitter:

Please. Do yourself a favor. Grab one of his non-Dragon Ball books and read some Toriyama, to celebrate the legendary mangaka.

#animeNEWS Papa and Mama are flirting~ Spy x Family

 My current favorite manga is getting an anime adaptation! Awesome! And it actually does look pretty nice and faithful!

Check out Spy x Family!

#Blog JoJo's Bizarre Adventure DC

I gotta admit it... So I've been really into JoJo's Bizarre Adventure lately. Starting reading the manga. Checking stuff about the lore and all.

And I finally grabbed a copy of the Dreamcast JoJo's Bizarre Adventure game. A game I remember seeing several times in stores back around the DC days. I remember seeing the games a few times: when I bought Street Fighter 3 First Strike on its release day. During holidays in a supermarket in the gaming section. At the airport even.

But I never grabbed it since I wasn't particularly interested in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure back then..

..and now I kinda regret it, considering how much the Pal release costs nowdays.

Anyways, I grabbed the Japanese release recently:

 I dig the story mode, it actually follows the manga pretty closely. Plus it looks gorgeous.

(Was this post a JoJo's reference?)

#GamingNEWS One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows - Announcement Trailer | PS4

Here's a new look at the upcoming One Punch Man fighting game. Looking pretty fun so far:



I really dig the quirky way they implemented Saitama in the game. Can't wait!

#FightingNEWS One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows Official Characters Trailer - Gamescom 2019

"One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows"! This looks like a fun yet weird fighting game. They actually tried to keep Saitama's indestructible strenght in a fighter. How do you balance that? By simply making Saitama arrive late in fights! Heck they even kept his one-punch ability! Check this out:



The roster seems bigger and better than Kill la Kill IF at least.

Mmmh.. Fubuki and Tatsumaki...

#FightingNEWS One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows - Official Announcement Trailer

Here's the game I didn't knew I'd been waiting for.

A One Punch Man fighting game! Well, a 3v3 arena fighter, not exactly my cup of tea, heck with Saitama's infinite strenght I somehow would have preferred an actual adventure/beat 'em all experience.

But look! Saitaman even looks invicible in gameplay! How is this game even gonna be balanced??



We already got Sonic and Fubuki. Just add Tatsumaki, and all my favs will be playable!

#Randomz Go look for a job...dressed like a One Piece character!?

This is not a teaser for a japanese One Piece film. Instead it's just an ad for a job research agency.

But the fun part is that they used some actually famous actors and pretty good costumes... Like, "looking for a job" is like "looking for the one piece treasure"... ? (That's a pretty bad message.. isn't finding the one piece basically impossible and a never-ending quest?)

Anyways:
Posted by Oricon , this video stars actor Takumi Saitoh as Luffy, model Rika Izumi as Nami, comedian Daigo Yamamoto as Usopp, actor Hiroyuki Ikeuchi as Zoro and actor Yosuke Kubozuka as Sanji.


And here's the video:

#GamingNEWS JUMP FORCE - NEW Characters Trailer (Gamescom 2018)

How does JUMP FORCE manage to both look great and off-putting at the same time...?! The idea to put anime characters in a realistic setting sounds fun at first... but then you get toy-like looking characters over it..?



The game seems to be a new "Tenkaichi Budokai"-style fighting game. With similar simple inputs and overhead/shoulder camera.

#SDCC2018 ALITA BATTLE ANGEL Trailer 2 (2018)

You know what, this Gunnm/Alita Hollywood adaptation does actually look kinda promising and faithful, all things considered. The punk tone seems to have been altered for a more generic scifi-ysh style. But I dig it. Still not sold on the huge CGi eyes, I'm sure they could have easily done without those giant bug eyes...



I'm not sure I like the the Last Order/Mars Chronicles bits added to the original Gunnm/Alita story...

#E3News My Hero One's Justice - PS4/XB1/PC/Switch - E3 trailer (English Trailer)

I've really been into the My Hero Academia manga series lately. And this trailer for the upcoming game My Hero One's Justice makes it look pretty fun to play with these fun colorful heroes and villains!



Can't wait!!

ComicPageOfTheWeekend: Toriyama cheating some panels

Toyotaro's not the only one tracing art. Well, at least Toriyama used to copy his own panels...

(Click for bigger pic)

Dragon Ball © Shueisha

#E32018 Day 1 Microsoft stuff

Even though the proper event will start this week, the E3 2018 conferences started this weekend.

And we already got some nice surprises (and some big letdowns) from Microsoft, Bethesda and EA's shows. Let's start with Microsoft/Xbox.

#GamingNEWS PlayStation(R)4「ONE PIECE WORLD SEEKER」第2弾PV

I haven't been into One Piece in decades, but even so I gotta admit this upcoming new game for the PS4 looks pretty darn' epic and on such a huge scale!!

ComicPanelsOfTheWeek: Everyone take a good look a Jubilee, she's adorable.

(Click for bigger pic)

X-Men © Marvel Comics

#GamingNEWS Bardock & Broly join Dragon Ball FighterZ as DLC!

The first upcoming DLC for Dragon Ball FighterZ  is.. pretty decent, and exactly as expected! Although I fear for what's coming next instead of fun, original and creative additions...

As they've been long-rumored, the first duo of DLC characters joining the fighting game are Bardock, Son Goku's dad, and Broly, the legendary OC super saiyajin! And I love the fact Bardock's getting a SSJ attack like his recent TV special from a couple of years back.

They say how Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 players will get a free  Android 21 while Dragon Ball FighterZ can unlock a new Supreme Kai lobby character & stamp by owning both games!

And the tiny newsbit on the bottom left cornermentions an upcoming DLC adding the original Dragon Ball theme songs in the game - Makafushigi, Cha-La, and Dan Dan from GT (!!). But I'm fairly sure this will remain a Japan-exclusive DLC, sadly...





I can't wait to have Bardock in the game! So I can play with my Goku-not-Goku team of Goku/Bardock/Black!

More female characters next time, please? It's such a sausage-fest right now.. (Gimme Videl! Or DB!Chi Chi! Or Caulifla! Or Goku's mom... etc.)

#MovieNEWS 『BLEACH』Live Action Film

And here it is finally, the first Bleach live action film teaser trailer!

And...

It doesn't look half bad!

Plus it's adapting the very beginning of the manga, which was my favorite part of Bleach!

Ichigo looks as you'd expect. Plus we get a quick look at Hana Sugisaki as Rukia Kuchiki. Check this out:

#MovieNEWS Alita: Battle Angel | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX

GODDAMMIT!!!

I had so much hope and hype for this one... My favorite manga series about robots (sorry, Ghost in the Shell..)... Robert Rodriguez directing it..  A relatively decent cast...

But instead we got "this"!?!! To "mimic" the manga artstyle???



Just...

Ugh...

I can't... I need time to process this result...

We don't even get any cyber/punk feel from this production!!!

Robert Rodriguez, how could you let us down so much....!! Sigh...

This is just gonna be a secondhand DVD-buy from me...

#MovieNEWS Blade of the Immortal - Official Trailer

Great news everyone!

One of my favorite Japanese film directors is back with an adaptation I didn't expect...!

Takashi Miike is making an adaptation of "Blade of the Immortal".

A now-sadly obscure great samurai manga from the early 2000s. I only read like two volumes of it, but I remember really loving these books. (I had the above volume!) It's about an immortal samurai warrior seeking revenge against those who betrayed him.

Here is the first proper "red-band" trailer:.



It looks AWESOME!!

And some people (on the internet..) dare say the Japanese adaptation of manga series are not great... Sigh..

The film will be out in November in some places worldwide (September in the US, in Texas!).

#MovieNEWS BLEACH live action film TRAILER

Yes.

There's going to be a live action film of the popular shonen series Bleach.

And this super-short teaser while it doesn't show anything really, does seem to hint at basically what you'd expect. There's this dude with orange air and gigantic sword.

Hopefully if it stays relatively close to the beginning of the manga series, it might actually be a decent film (and better than the later storylines).

Check it out:



It always feel weird looking at these Japanese manga film adaptations, but I think this might be good. American fanboys aside - lemme explain - once you get in the proper mindset of the different in aesthatic and budget, I often find myself enjoying these live action films. (Even Ranma worked great in my eyes.)

Even Bleach creator Tite Kubo never expected to see the main character’s hair on the big screen. But there it is.

#RIP Jiro Taniguchi

I learned this the other day, but couldn't process it just yet..

One of my favorite Japanese artists/mangakas, Jiro Taniguchi, died this February 11.

I always felt he wasn't known enough in English-speaking countries, but he's kind of huge in French-speaking territories. He didn't do mainstream shonen titles but instead self-contained "graphic novels" if you will. And a few other original dramatic stories. He was huge into observational stories.

He received a few awards at the Belgium "Angoulême International Comics Festival" over the years.

His last few stories these last ten years have all been fantastic and critically acclaimed.

I'll miss reading his new stories, for sure.

RIP.